Hey guys, Renoud of Myrm Emblem fame here, let me ask you a couple questions:
Have you ever played a ranked FE7 run?
Have you ever played the japanese version of FE7?
Have you ever done a ranked run of the japanese version of FE7?
Have you ever lost a ranked run of the japanese version of FE7 because the ranked requirements of a map got set to 0 and you realized too late, so you had no way to salvage the run?
If your answer was yes to every question, but especially the last one, then that is probably because of one of FE7’s most obscure glitches, and arguably one of the most glitches in the series: The Chapter 0 Glitch.
What is this?
Chapter 0 makes it so that during a map, if you suspend, then resume the game, and then complete the map, then the ranked requirement for tactics, funds, combat and exp will be set to 0, just like how the Hector mode exclusive maps work. Survival rank will still work as intended.
This glitch is actually mostly benefitial since that means you won’t have to worry so much about funds or exp, but the downside is that the tactics requirement becomes much more demanding.
The affected chapters are the Linus version of Four-Fanged Offense, Valorous Roland and The Berserker, so this affects both Eliwood Mode and Hector Mode. An affected playthrough will show " 0 章 " on any of the previously mentioned maps, with no chapter name and then the corresponding turn count.
How did I find this glitch?
As you probably guessed from the introduction, I found out about this because I was doing a ranked run of FE7 and I own a japanese copy of the game. I remember suspending during FFO Linus and then going back to finish the map. By mere coincidence, I stuck around for a bit longer than the 22 turn limit the map has to grind some exp, since this map has a lot of enemies and an arena.
I had a spreadsheet keeping track of all my turn counts, and up until that point I managed to get 21 turns ahead of the requirements, so I could afford to stay on the map a bit longer, but after I finished it I noticed that my tactics score dropped from 5 stars to 4 stars. Despite staying on the map longer than the requirement, it shouldn’t have dropped to 4 stars due to my 21 turns of leeway.
I kept playing the game, but after beating Night of Farewells and seeing that my tactics score was still stuck at 4 stars, I decided to stop the run and figure out what was going on. And after some investigation and asking around in several discord servers, I learned about this extremely obscure glitch and how it affected my playthrough.
In the following spreadsheet, if the Total Profit column is green then that means that I’m ahead in turns and that I have 5 stars in tactics. Notice how 24 Linus’ expected turns is 22 as normal.
But in this spreadsheet, I set 24 Linus’ expected turns to 0. Because I took 25 turns, this set my total profit as -4 after beating the map (as 21-25 = -4), causing my tactics score to drop to 4 stars like in my playthrough, and it took me to complete Cog of Destiny in 15 turns to finally get back to 5 stars in tactics.
So yeah, there you have it. This glitch is almost completely unknown to the western audience and for a good reason, since this glitch is exclusive to the japanese version of FE7. But how about we take a look at a few smaller, more niche glitches in this game?
Other small glitches
- If the Fire Dragon attacks a unit with Fimbulvetr equipped on enemy phase, then the game’s graphics will become glitchy. Suspending the game fixes this issue.
- If you use the Set’s Litany on a unit, suspend the game and then resume, the effect will be gone. Unlike Chapter 0 or the Fimbulvetr glitch, this one is present in the american version of FE7. It is not present in the japanese or the american versions of FE8, I do not know if it’s present in the european version.
It should be noted that I do not know why do any of these glitches exist, nor do I know if they affect the european versions of the game, so I invite anyone to try to figure out the causes or if they’re present in the other versions of FE7.
Thank you for reading.
Credits
A-Fish-In-Sea Emblem discord server